Chocolate-Covered Macadamia Nuts

I know, I know.  Just last week, I said we had caught up. And here I am, one week later, with another post.  I did tell you we'd have sporadic updates, didn't I?

A few days ago, I brought in some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. They'd been given to me as a gift. I don't actually like Macadamia nuts. In fact, I dislike most nuts most of the time. But that's a tale for a different blog.

So I did what I always do when someone gives me food I don't like: I brought it to work to share with the rest of the desk and/or the locusts in the warehouse (they'll eat anything).

I had no idea that Dasha had never had Macadamia nuts.

The box sat on the desk for about half an hour before I heard, "Okay, let's see what this is all about." And then there was the telltale rustling of the packaging being removed.  Her usual dubious look followed, before she took a bite.

"This is really good," she said, "It's probably very expensive, huh?"

I honestly don't know - a quick check on Amazon told me that it depends on the Macadamia nuts in question. Some of them are quite pricey. In some cases, it borders on the ridiculous. Looking closely, it looks like the chocolate covering brings down the price - nuts alone are around $25/lb.

While I was typing this out, she had another comment to add:

"If you think these won't be gone in an hour, you would be wrong."

The verdict: Win.

Caught Up

And, with that last post, we have caught up with reality.  We have introduced Dasha to a number of uniquely American things - and we hope to continue doing so, but the search for them is becoming more difficult.

New American Things now transitions from a weekly schedule to an occasional schedule.

If you have any suggestions for things that may be new to Dasha, please feel free to e-mail me or comment on this post and I'll check with Dasha to see if it's new to her or not.

As Dasha is introduced to new things, I will post them - but that will be less and less frequent.

Feel free to keep checking back, and thank you for reading to this point.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

This isn't so much an American thing as it is an Eric thing. See, my wife has this recipe for a chocolate peanut butter banana bread.  And yes, you read that correctly. It's a chocolate bread which contains both peanut butter and bananas.

A few weeks back, her office had a bake-off. She didn't win (I think she was robbed), but she did bake an extra loaf for my office. And I was kind enough to share (which I usually don't do when something is that good).


As we know, peanut butter is hit-or-miss outside of North America. It just hasn't caught on. So anything with the flavor of peanut butter is a risk when sharing with Dasha.

Now, I know she has a sweet tooth. And I know she likes chocolate. So I figured the bread was a safe bet, and I cut a slice for Dasha.

She poked at it a bit. "It seems very soft."  The way my wife makes it, it's very moist.  It's hard not to be, when cooking with bananas. Unless you screw something up. She then sniffed at it, before breaking a small piece off and tasting it.  "It's good!"

"Well of course it is," I told her, "My wife made it."  My wife - for the record - is an excellent cook.

"You should tell your wife to cook more often."

I am in complete agreement with this.  I should also cook more often. But that's beside the point.

A few minutes passed, and then, "Can I have the recipe?"

That was fairly easily done. I keep the recipe reasonably accessible, so I printed it out and gave it to her.  "Thank you for this.  I think I'm going to make it."

The verdict?  WIN. Not only did she like it, but if she makes it at home, I'm likely to get more. That's a win for all concerned.

Caramel Apples

A local Halloween tradition is that of the Caramel Apple.  Someone at my wife's office brought some in to share, and my wife grabbed an extra.

"If you don't like it," she told me, "I'm sure you'll know someone who will."

So I did what I've been doing whenever I'm presented with something that is part my my upbringing: I brought it in to work for Dasha.

"What is this?" She held the apple up in its plastic shell, turning it left and right, examining it closely.

"It's a caramel apple.  It's just an apple that's been dipped in caramel."

It bears mentioning that this was a grocery store apple. It wasn't really dipped - someone had wrapped a thin sheet of caramel around the apple and then dipped it in nuts.  The caramel hadn't even been softened first, so it did look a bit sketchy.  Because the best caramel apples are dipped in softened caramel. Or else the caramel sheets are softened after they are applied, which causes the caramel to harden.  It's a bit harder to eat, but tastes much better.

"How do you eat it?"

"It's on a stick.  You just hold it by the stick and eat the apple."

"I'm not hungry right now.  I will take it home and share with my husband."

The next morning, we asked her what she though.

"I liked the apple."  She put an odd emphasis on that last word.

"So you didn't like the caramel?"

"I don't know - it just didn't taste like real caramel."

I'll grant that. It just means I need to track down a good caramel apple for her at some point.

The verdict: Fail, but that may be the caramel on this particular sample.

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

I have a sweet tooth.  I like junk food.

One of my favorite things is chocolate-covered peanut butter-filled pretzel bites.  I don't get them very often, because I have a bad habit of eating the entire bag in one sitting.

I figured Dasha has a sweet tooth, and I would share with her. That way, I would eat fewer of them and (in general), I would be healthier.

She started with her usual question, "What is this?"

I explained that it was a pretzel that had been filled with peanut butter and then dipped in chocolate. I know that peanut butter is one of those flavors that isn't popular world-wide. In fact, my parents tell stories about how they used to give peanut butter to Greeks when we lived in Athens.  Because people who haven't grown up eating it often have difficulties, it's funny to watch.  "In return," my parents would tell us as part of the story, "they would give us this fruit that you're supposed to eat, rind and all.  It was so bitter ... " Apparently it was funny to watch Americans trying to eat it. But that's beside the point.

I wasn't sure if Dasha had any experience with peanut butter, or what her thoughts on peanut butter were. After her reaction to Pocky, I was 90% sure she would like chocolate-dipped pretzels. She likes salty and sweet both (but I don't know if she likes them together - I'll have to find out sometime). I had no idea how the peanut butter would impact her liking of this one. It was a genuine gamble.

She took one of the bites, and tentatively poked at it. "So it's just a pretzel inside?"

"With peanut butter."

"That's it?" She bit half of one off, and then wrinkled her nose.  "I don't think so," she said, "It's not for me."

At least the verdict was fast.

The verdict:  FAIL.

Follow-Up #2: Twinkies vs. Tastykakes

I have a friend on the East Coast named Geoff. Geoff is one of my favorite people to deal with, and was one of the first people out there to find this blog (I honestly don't remember if I sent him a link or if he stumbled across it on his own).

When he saw the post on Twinkies and Ding Dongs, he asked me why I hadn't given her Tastykakes.

My e-mailed response was something along the lines of "Tastywhat?"

It was explained to me that Tastykakes are what the East Coast eats instead of Twinkies. They are apparently fresher and better than Twinkies. Or so Geoff told me - and I do tend to trust him.

"You'll see," he told me.

A few days later, I received a UPS package containing a tin. None of the three of us on the order desk had ever heard of them. So I shared with Dasha and J. And my wife. And a friend visiting from California ...

There is a lot of cake in the tin!

I really liked them. So did my wife. The peanut-butter KandyKakes especially hit the spot for me, and I tried several of the others.

Dasha tried a few different things from the tin - she liked the chocolate cupcakes, and didn't like the sponge cakes. So they came out about the same as the Twinkies and Ding Dongs.

I ... I forgot to ask J. what she thought. Ooops.

So all in all, it comes out a Win for me - I found a new snack food that I like. It was mixed for Dasha.

Thanks, Geoff. I appreciate your broadening our horizons.

Arnold Palmers

I drink a lot of tea. I just like the stuff. I tend to drink it iced with sugar.

I learned recently that iced tea is very much an American thing - the rest of the world tends to only drink tea hot and the idea of iced tea is bizarre to most of them.

Occasionally, I'll drink an Arnold Palmer. Because I like a good lemonade, too. Iced tea is very American, so any drink which contains it becomes more obscure to non-Americans.

A few weeks ago, Dasha asked me if I was obsessed with tea - I think that's probably a fair question. I don't drink much soda anymore, so most of what I drink at work is tea.  At the time, I had a canned Arnold Palmer in front of me.

"I may be a bit obsessed," I said, "but this one isn't just tea.  Did you want to try some?"

"I don't know," she said, "What else is in it?"

"Lemonade.  Do you like Lemonade?"

After a bit of hesitation, she responded in the affirmative.

It cracks me up, sometimes, because she's so very willing to try all these new-to-her things, even though we've had some definite misses. Of course, a few of the hits have been significant ...

I grabbed one of our shot-sized cups and poured a bit of my drink into it. "If you want more than this, let me know - I have more in the fridge."

She took a small sip, and it was immediately followed by the "Do Not Want" expression.

"I take it we have another miss?"

"I don't think I like it.  It's weird, though. Because you can taste the lemonade at the same time as you can taste the iced tea, and I like lemonade."

She tried another sip. She actually finished off the small glass. "Now I am sure," she informed me, "I don't like this."

Like everything so far, I thanked her for trying it.

The verdict: Fail. Apparently the iced tea-ness overwhelmed the lemonadity. And yes, I know that those aren't actual words.